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The pale yellow color of hexaaquamanganese(II) is due to the weak crystal field splitting of the d-orbitals in the complex ion. The d-electrons in manganese(II) are in a high spin state, which means that they are not paired up and occupy all five d-orbitals. This results in a small energy gap between the d-orbitals, allowing for the absorption of only low-energy light in the blue region of the spectrum, which leaves the transmitted light appearing pale yellow.